Celebrity fashion victims can breathe a little easier: Joan and Melissa Rivers will not be stalking them on the red carpet at September’s Emmy awards gala, the Los Angeles Times reports. Though the TV Guide Channel hired the mother-daughter pair away from E! earlier this year precisely to boost its own red carpet coverage, E! has contracted with the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for exclusive cable rights to live pre-show coverage. In fact, E! has also locked up the rights for the 2005 Emmys as well.

A TV Guide Channel spokesperson tells the Times that the channel knew of E!’s deal with the TV academy when it signed the Riverses to a three-year pact (for a reported sum of $6 million, more than they earned at E!), but TV Guide Channel executives believed they could work out a waiver from the academy. The academy, however, says there’s nothing it can do about the pre-show rights.

The Riverses, who’ll still be able to walk the red carpet at the Grammys, the Oscars, and the Golden Globes (which do not restrict cable rights), have not commented on the matter. As for E!, it has yet to announce who’ll be taking Joan and Melissa’s place during its celebrity-arrivals coverage. E! executives did not respond to EW.com’s request for comment by press time.